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Post by shabbychic on Jun 30, 2008 21:05:38 GMT -5
Hi, when I signed in tonight I got a message that my profile was missing required information: my gender. I joined weeks ago and have logged on every day or so and this is the first time that my gender was required. Is this a new requirement? Why? Just curious. Thanks.
Shabby Chic
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Post by CourageouslyLion SeeksSerenity on Jun 30, 2008 22:12:32 GMT -5
- That just happened to me... I left my gender blank. I then "saved" my lack of designation, and told them to not reveal it.  It also asked for my date of birth to which I made up something silly. And told them to hide it from everyone. This happened here tonight ... and also on another proboards I belong to. I am guessing it's a proboards-wide thing? WTF? It made my gender female anyhow and revealed it? I just went back in again to my profile and told it to hide my gender.  This is LAME. My gender is not the business of the proboards management! (you all know I'm a lioness, despite my male name and male avatar picture) ... but it really is not the business of Proboards.com ! - |
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Post by CourageouslyLion SeeksSerenity on Jun 30, 2008 22:33:48 GMT -5
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Post by roseoftexas on Jun 30, 2008 23:14:41 GMT -5
I only read the first page of that thread you posted, Lioness, but I agree. It is totally lame. Somebody has way too much time on their hands!  |
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Post by angelinahedgehog on Jul 1, 2008 7:14:31 GMT -5
Goodness, that's silly.
I'm female, and don't have a problem with being identified as female in most contexts (goodness knows - "Angelina" as a name? Not gender neutral!), but this is ridiculous.
The argument that it will improve the user experience is pretty weak as far as I'm concerned.
What I can believe is what someone mentioned on the bottom of the fourth page of the thread CLSS linked to: that this is a way to help target ads more precisely.
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Post by roseoftexas on Jul 1, 2008 8:00:23 GMT -5
...What I can believe is what someone mentioned on the bottom of the fourth page of the thread CLSS linked to: that this is a way to help target ads more precisely.
Ahh - yup, yup! I bet that poster is right! What would be really funny would be if we all chose the opposite gender of what we really are, and then just choose not to disclose it in our profile. Heh. I'm gonna go do that right now!  ETA: Wow! It felt really weird declaring myself 'Male'!  Will be interesting to see what sort of ads show up when I log in now...  |
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Post by ramatama on Jul 2, 2008 10:35:23 GMT -5
ETA: Wow! It felt really weird declaring myself 'Male'! Will be interesting to see what sort of ads show up when I log in now... will you let us ( the other gender ones) know? please? |
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Post by eagle on Jul 4, 2008 18:30:36 GMT -5
Well, if it's about ads, I'd just as soon not see those male enhancement ones, if that's what the 30-something men are subjected to. If age and gender keeps them away, I'm pleased. I'm honest about my age and gender & although I rarely notice the ads, right now they are about Emoticons. No biggie.
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Post by MsHavisham on Jul 4, 2008 19:33:51 GMT -5
Grrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!! I love this board so no offense to the folks here - but I will be shooting off a nasty-gram to proboards. It is this kind of "harmless" profiling that has disadvantaged women academically and professionally for decades. I have definitely seen it play out in my own life... 1982: "Our classes are co-ed until Jr High when we divide the boys and girls for Home Ec and Industrial Arts." 1986: Boys with lower math scores than mine get into the computer courses I requested. I'm told I'm better off taking English electives. 1996: Wow - those English courses really paid off: I'm a secretary! I build PCs as a hobby. I help out the IT staff a lot but it takes me six years to get the title and the money. 2006: "We know you're a network administrator now, but we're going to remove you from the network team (making it an all-male shop) and have you be the network guru for customer support. This won't be a glass ceiling for you." (Yeah, right...) 2008: I'm forced to declare a gender online and find myself staring at ads for "thousands of free emoticons" (including a diva with a rose in her hair) - and FatLossForIdiots.com.  I go back and click male and get ads for multi-player online strategy games, criminal records searches and tattoo information. Because of course, women are emotionally labile and always on a diet; men have interests. When are we going to get past this BULL$H1T?!! |
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Post by comingclean on Jul 6, 2008 10:46:34 GMT -5
krazykatlady -- my gender is still set to female and i've got the testosterone and male enhancement ads !
at my email address (which has "momma" in it) i get spam advertising growing my "organ" to unknown lengths and pleasing my woman. WTF?
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Post by Celeste on Jul 8, 2008 16:01:39 GMT -5
Did you know that if you could find seven people in any given month to donate $1.00, we could be ad free here? If you are feeling generous and want to donate the entire $7, no ads for anyone! Just FYI. Of course, that means no more organ enhancing ads... how sad!
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Post by crazycatlady on Jul 8, 2008 22:02:22 GMT -5
If you check the thread topics, I think the ads kind of follow along. Above this thread about "gender", I find the enhancement ads. Above the photo gallery, I find ads for closet organizers.
I like free! I say...bring on the (easily ignored) ADS!  !
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Post by glowworm on Jul 11, 2008 17:57:51 GMT -5
Ads? What ads? I don't see any ads. |
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Post by glowworm on Jul 11, 2008 18:02:54 GMT -5
Ohhhh the giant bar at the top of the screen that's offering to help me meet women if I'm scared of them.
That's awesome.
I think their profile thing is not working.
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Post by dirtybooks on Jul 13, 2008 20:58:48 GMT -5
And what about Intersexuals and Transsexuals? Do they not exist?
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